College Sweethearts Marry After 60 Years Apart

Peggy Marie Pence Schuster and Henry O. Freund first felt a spark between them back in 1950 when the pair attended Southwestern of Memphis (now Rhodes College).

They exercised their young love by sitting next to each other in class and attending school events together. But like many college sweethearts, their romance didn’t make the jump into the real world. Soon after graduation, Marie married someone else, and Henry, who had joined the Air Force, did the same.

Both had long marriages and three children. Henry became a pastor after his discharge from the military. In 2001, Henry, who was a widower, learned at a church meeting that Marie had also recently become widowed. So he sent her a note of condolence.

It took a decade for Marie to respond to her old college flame, but when they did get in contact, the pair started emailing each other regularly.

“It didn’t take long for the spark that had survived for 60 years to burst into flames,” Henry explained.

The two octogenarians were married over the weekend at the Canterbury Place Assisted Living in Dyersburg, TN, where they will live after their honeymoon. Together, finally, after six decades. It’s stories like this that prove that true love comes to those who wait.